Prostate Laser Surgery – Benign Prostate Hypertrophy

Benign prostatic hypertrophy or BPH is a medical condition that causes obstructive urinary symptoms in most men, especially in their old age as they pass 70 and approach 80. The symptoms of the disorder include reduced urine flow, increased frequency and urgency, dribbling, hesitancy, incontinence, and excess urination at night. There are instances in fact in which the disease affects men younger than 40, although that isn’t too common.

Also called prostate enlargement, one of the best known treatments for the condition is the transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), in a surgical instrument called the endoscope or cytoscope is inserted in order to cut away the excess tissue. However, due to the limitations of that procedure, and to technological advancements that are meant to make everything that much easier, other techniques have been found to improve on the TURP. 

Prostate laser surgery is a minimally invasive therapy that is used these days for the treatment of BPH. Just like with the TURP procedure, in this operation a portion of the prostate is removed; however this time it is done by the aid of a specialized laser. With this surgery, the man being treated is afforded better urinary retention than previously; and he may undergo the procedure in the event of medical therapy failure, a recurrent infection, and renal insufficiency.

Incidentally, prostate laser surgery may be employed also for the treatment of various other conditions that generally affect the male urinary and reproductive systems, such as bladder stones, and prostatic bleeding. During the procedure, an anesthetic is given to the patient to help him relax for the length of the operation. The cystoscope is then inserted along with a specialized laser fiber in order to remove the portion of the prostate blocking the bladder’s drainage. Because of the loss of continence that result from the trauma to the region, a catheter is left in the bladder just long enough for the man to regain control of his bladder fluids – the catheter is usually removed the next day.

Some of the important advantages of prostate laser surgery, especially over TURP include the aforementioned minimal invasiveness of the surgery in dealing with bladder outlet obstruction, and a shortened recovery period, which most men can appreciate if they have to get back to work in a hurry. Certainly, because of the improved precision of the process, the patient also experiences lower blood loss than if he had to undergo the conventional prostate surgery. There are side effects still, though, and they include some initial discomfort with voiding after the procedure; however, this fades within days. Some patients also take longer to recover their bladder control, but again, that fades. And with fewer scars, the man certainly has a lot to be thankful for

Prostate Cancer Surgery Side Effects – That You May Know Nothing Of

I don’t know of anyone under the sun who would rather not have one definitive fix-all solution to any ailment that there is… and without side effects too. But one should be so lucky – prostate cancer is definitely one disease that is not like that. Torn between several existing procedures that are meant to aid with the disease in some way, several new procedures for treating the disease continue to spring up all the time. Why? It’s because there is not definitive cure for the malignancy of the cells of the prostate gland, and worse, all the existing treatments have their own side effects that may not be very palatable to deal with.

Surgery is one such. Called a radical prostatectomy when used for dealing with prostate cancer, it can be done through an incision in the abdomen of the patient or through an incision in the perineum. Either way, the intention is to remove the prostate gland, and with it the cancerous tumor that is growing with it. One might then wonder how or why there should be any side effects to the therapy.

Here it is: besides the common risks that are synonymous with any kind of surgery, the unique location of the prostate gland specifically poses a special problem by itself. The gland is located underneath the bladder, partially surrounding it. It also is very close to the tube leading from the bladder to the penis called the urethra. As a result it is extremely difficult for anything to affect the prostate gland without affecting either the bladder or the urethra, or both.

This is why some of the symptoms of prostate cancer include problems with urinary function and with sexual performance. This is why there are quite a number of complications or side effects that occur from the prostate surgery that is intended to treat the condition and perhaps cure it. One of those side effects is the loss of continence or urinary control.

After the surgery, most men find it difficult to ‘hold their leaker,’ as it is called in vernacular. At least for several days they have to wear a catheter around their ankle with a tube from their penis to the sac to collect urine. For the most part though, a good portion of continence returns after a while – sometimes up to ninety percent of it.

But even graver is the fact that the nerves that control erection are closely located to the prostate – lining it on the sides even. As a result, even with nerve sparring to protect and avoid damage to the nerves, many men end up impotent and unable to achieve a proper erection again for the rest of their lives. Some semblance of it returns after a few years, but for the most part the man has to do it with medications (Viagra), which may or may not work.

How Can Radiotherapy Help With Prostate Cancer?

Radiotherapy is perhaps one of the longest standing known treatments for various forms of cancer across the spectrum of the disease all over the world. Discovered late in the 19th century by German Wilhelm Konrad Rontgen, it was already in use for medical purposes by the turn of the century, and today, there are constantly newer and newer applications for the radiation in medicine, and it remains one of the favorite options for cancer treatment.

Specifically, doctors prescribe treatment for prostate cancer patients based on the apparent aggression of the carcinoma, the stage of its growth, whether or not it has metastasized, the age of the patient, and his general health. Naturally, the purpose of treatment is to eliminate all of the cancer, or at the very least, as much of it as possible. For this reason, they aim to catch a patient’s prostate cancer in its earliest stage for if the malignancy is at a very advanced stage, the purpose of the treatment may only be palliative for the most part, intended toward making the patient as comfortable as possible for as long as they can manage.

Therapeutic radiology in particular (or radiation therapy, or radiotherapy) makes use of high-energy particles or waves (x-rays or gamma rays) to focus damaging radiation on the region of a prostate tumor with the intent of inflicting as much genetic damage on the tumor as possible. The radiation often causes damage to most of the cells in its path, meaning that it is harmful even to healthy cells in the human body. However, even though this same radiation therapy kills cancerous cells, it only damages healthy cells such that they are able to reproduce quickly.

As a consequence of the damage, though, there are side effects to radiation treatment for prostate cancer, and indeed various other forms of cancer. The patient will tend to experience such symptoms as fatigue, skin changes, and loss of appetite, and radiation proctitis, which may result in diarrhea and mild rectal bleeding. Other side effects may be related specifically to the areas that are being treated, which in case of prostate cancer might be fecal and urinary incontinence, including the milder hair loss and a decrease in the number of white blood cells. The upside of this is that most of the side effects of radiation treatment for prostate cancer are short-lived because the healthy tissues recover from radiation much more efficiently, and the patient’s health is restored.

Generally, prostate cancer treatments may be administered alone or in various combinations with one another. Radiation therapy in particular is often an alternative to surgery in many cases. One form, external radiation therapy, beams radiation from a machine onto the body; a second application (brachytherapy) applies internal radiation therapy through radioactive material sealed in “seeds” inserted into the prostate.

Radiotherapy may also be employed for later stages of prostate cancer, but often simultaneously with chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or prostatectomy; or one after the other.

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